Final Omens?
ALEXANDRIA, VA -- If the manner in which the 42nd and 43rd presidents closed out the 2006 election cycle is indicative, predictions of a Democratic surge tomorrow could prove true. Pres Bush attended a rally today held for FL's frontrunning GOV candidate, AG Charlie Crist (R) -- without Crist. An appearance with Bush in the state's conservative Panhandle was not as important as touching down in more competitive cities, Crist said. So the President of the United States was relegated to touting a candidate in absentia while standing on stage with his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush (R), and Sen. Mel Martinez (R), neither of whom are on the ballot tomorrow.
WH officials tried to argue that it was not a snub, and that the event was intended as a rallly for the GOP ticket. But the other top Republican on the ticket did not even get a spot on the stage, let alone a chance to speak alongside Pres Bush. Rep. Katherine Harris (R) got a fleeting mention in the president's introductory remarks and even less when a reporter asked WH Press Sec. Tony Snow before the event if the president was excited to campaign for the former FL Sec/State who played a pivotal role in the 2000 campaign. "He wants Republican candidates to win," Snow offered.
Hours later and almost a thousand miles north, Pres Bill Clinton took to a stage in this city, just across the river from the nation's capital. With him was not just the candidate on top of VA's ticket, SEN nominee James Webb (D), but VA's current and immediate past governor, the local congressman, a downstate congressman, three other candidates for area cong. seats, and almost every local Democratic office-holder. And if that wasn't enough, ex-Sen. Bob Kerrey (D), Sen Min Leader Harry Reid (D) and DSCC chair Charles Schumer (D) also found their way to the top of the riser -- and to the front row.
So while the WH couldn't get one statewide candidate to even show at their event -- and wouldn't let another grace the same stage with the president -- in a red region of a red state, Democrats couldn't keep people away from their rally in another red state. While Alexandria and the rest of Northern VA are, of course, significantly more blue-leaning than the rest of the commonwealth, it is nonetheless striking that VA Democrats, who for decades sought to distance themselves from their nat'l party, would even seek the polarizing Clinton to appear at an election-eve rally in a state he lost twice. Clinton's last public appearance with a statewide candidate in VA? Nine years to the day, in front of the same city hall here, for then-LG Don Beyer's (D) unsuccessful GOV bid. Clinton's '97 appearance, however, was not the last time a president swooped into VA for an election eve visit. Pres Bush decamped from Air Force One last November to fire up Republicans at a Richmond airport hangar for then-AG Jerry Kilgore's (R) GOV bid. Kilgore was trounced the next day. Sen. George Allen (R), like Crist, avoided the 11th-hour photo op, but will he avoid Kilgore's fate?
[JONATHAN MARTIN]